Captive Balloon

Meeting on the Midway Plaisance
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Meeting on the Midway Plaisance

REPRINTS

Meeting on the Midway Plaisance

On any given day, tens or hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. One visitor commented on the strange coincidence of meeting familiar people on the fairgrounds: “Anyone merely passing among the thousands scattered over the Exposition grounds can get no idea of what a big patch of the earth they represent. You cannot guess how many of them came from long distances. A man who resides in [...]

By Scott|2025-11-14T14:20:40-06:00November 16th, 2025|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Captive Balloon, Charles Graham|2 Comments

Ron Soule’s “Escape from the Emerald City” imagines an origin story for Oz at the 1893 World’s Fair
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Ron Soule’s “Escape from the Emerald City” imagines an origin story for Oz at the 1893 World’s Fair

FICTION, PRODUCTS

Ron Soule’s “Escape from the Emerald City” imagines an origin story for Oz at the 1893 World’s Fair

Escape from the Emerald City by Ron Soule. Independently published, 2023. 105 pages. Hardcover, $14.95. ISBN 9798395968029. Paperback, $7.95. ISBN 9798395968111. In the growing library of “fairground fiction,” stories that involve historical figures offer a special treat to readers who enjoy imagining how famous (and soon-to-be-famous) people experienced the 1893 World’s Fair. A then-unknown traveling salesman from Chicago visited the fairgrounds on several occasions with his wife and four sons. Only a few years later he would burst onto [...]

By Scott|2023-12-21T06:05:37-06:00December 21st, 2023|Categories: FICTION, PRODUCTS|Tags: Captive Balloon, Electricity Building, Hagenbeck's Animal Arena, L. Frank Baum, Lorado Taft, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Tower of Light, Volcano of Kilauea|0 Comments

“After the Ball” entertains and enrages at the 1893 World’s Fair
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“After the Ball” entertains and enrages at the 1893 World’s Fair

AUDIO, HISTORY

“After the Ball” entertains and enrages at the 1893 World’s Fair

One song served as the (unofficial) anthem of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. More popular than “Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay,” more often sung than “America,” and more frequently parodied than “Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow Wow,” this tune could be heard—for better or for worse—throughout the fairgrounds all summer. Groups ranging from John Philip Sousa’s band to the marimba quartet at the Guatemala Building to the donkey boys on the Street in Cairo performed the hit of Fair, “After the [...]

By Scott|2024-01-23T08:50:26-06:00November 29th, 2023|Categories: AUDIO, HISTORY|Tags: After the Ball, Captive Balloon, International Ball, sheet music, Teresa Dean|0 Comments

“A Medley of the Midway Plaisance” by A. B. Ward
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“A Medley of the Midway Plaisance” by A. B. Ward

REPRINTS

“A Medley of the Midway Plaisance” by A. B. Ward

The short story reprinted below is a romance set on the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World’s Fair. Writing as “A. B. Ward,” Mrs. Alice Ward Bailey (1857–1922) was a prolific author of fiction around the turn of the twentieth century. The mawkish prose and bumpy pacing in this story may explain why the author is essentially forgotten today. Still, her dramatic sketch offers an intimate peek into the lives of fictional inhabitants of the Midway and invites us [...]